They say the devil’s water – it ain’t so sweet
You don’t have to drink right now
But you can dip your feet
Every once in a little while

– The Killers

If you’re looking for the personal update, it’s at the bottom of this post.

One of my favourite things to do is connect with young grads and students aspiring to take their career to the next level. I had three great conversations this week with people looking to do just that in their development, and each one of them gave me food for thought as well.

But while I listened, answered questions, shared experiences and the like, the one young person I feel I helped most this week wasn’t any of them. It was a family member on the weekend.

One of my cousins is in university and I don’t see him very often. We keep in touch on Snapchat. He shows me what happens in his labs, on campus, and during the crazy parties he goes to. I took the time to remind him when I saw him that university would be four of the best years of his life.

And he responded, ‘Oh I know. Never again will I have this sort of time that I can spend doing nothing’.

And that struck a chord with me. Perhaps it was the ambition of the other three grads I had talked to that came flooding to my mind, but he could see the look of disdain come across my face instantly when he said that. I had gone into mentor mode.

He quickly started backpedaling, telling me about the sports he’s playing and the pretty girl he’d been texting but there was an unmentioned understanding that I know he took away: wasting all of your time is not cool, and it’s definitely nothing to brag about.

You’ve probably seen me write about ‘no more zero days’ before. I know for the next little while, all of those efforts I take to better myself personally and professionally will be shared with him. If you’re in need of a little extra motivation yourself, please let me know so I can add you to the distribution list.

Your undergrad will be the time of your life. Work hard, play hard, but when it’s all said and done have something else to show for it. Whatever you choose to do with your days, do something.

Personal update below:
I want to apologize to you for the infrequency of my posts. I’ve been kept busy with social media crisis management that will no doubt be the subject of a few new posts as soon as it’s squarely behind me. In the mean time, while I have been awful with updating my blog, I’ve been really active on Twitter, Snapchat and just launched my own Periscope channel. The handles for all of these are @adamrodricks.